On the heels of the post about my day job...Engineering is why I write. I love writing because it's not engineering. The creative process of writing is the yen to the yang of the technical nature of my career. When I'm not at work, writing (among many other things) provides a balance.
During the 9 to 5 my entire focus is on numbers and figures. Take today for example. The two things I split my time between were: first to determine an accurate gallon per day irrigation consumption for a community's water model. I found this data by pouring over historical metered data records and then making some assumptions. And second, run multiple iterations on a model for different sizes of rainstorms until the model results and the real world data matched up almost exactly...ok you get the point. It's not the most free-form, creative occupation in the world.
Like I've said in previous blog posts, I enjoy this kind of work. But I'm 99.999% certain that if this was all that I did, I would go bloody batty.
Writing allows me to escape from "just the facts" and create something more malleable. It's an outlet for me in my world of following state regulations and industry standards. Getting to put a completely different world on paper, one that has endless possibilities, is a release. Creating a story that I enjoy would be wonderful to share with the world. And if I'm being honest, there's a little bit of my ego that would love to have something bigger than myself live on after I'm gone.
During the 9 to 5 my entire focus is on numbers and figures. Take today for example. The two things I split my time between were: first to determine an accurate gallon per day irrigation consumption for a community's water model. I found this data by pouring over historical metered data records and then making some assumptions. And second, run multiple iterations on a model for different sizes of rainstorms until the model results and the real world data matched up almost exactly...ok you get the point. It's not the most free-form, creative occupation in the world.
Like I've said in previous blog posts, I enjoy this kind of work. But I'm 99.999% certain that if this was all that I did, I would go bloody batty.
Writing allows me to escape from "just the facts" and create something more malleable. It's an outlet for me in my world of following state regulations and industry standards. Getting to put a completely different world on paper, one that has endless possibilities, is a release. Creating a story that I enjoy would be wonderful to share with the world. And if I'm being honest, there's a little bit of my ego that would love to have something bigger than myself live on after I'm gone.
And it's fun...
So, why do you write? (Please chime in on this post! I would LOVE to know what motivates my fellow writers out there!)
I have too... it is inside of me, and i must get it out.
It’s just a part of who I am now.
I think it boils down to how much I love it, what it does for me on so many levels it is nearly impossible to state.
Creating something so vast and unpredictable is just one aspect. Learning is another, new and ever-changing stories and worlds is another.
I write because.........
You made a really good point about the "Learning" aspect associated with writing. While creating the story I learn more about both myself and the subject matter.
Hey tried to subscribe to your feed, but can't becaues the url looks like:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Your%20Feed%20ID
which is invalid. I clicked the RSS symbol on your main page.
Since you are a blogger.com user, you simply use :
http://lylacampbell.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Keep on learning, keep on writing.
~Newton Saber
100 Beginnings for Fiction Writers analysis of 100 novels and how we (as writers) learn from them.
The Writer's Invisible Mentor My writing project about writing and learning to write
Saber Slice: More on Creativity and Writing
Thanks for letting me know about the RSS feed. Blogger has given me grief when dealing with it in the past...